


Lost and Found

by lovehugsandcandy



Category: Ride or Die (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25896565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovehugsandcandy/pseuds/lovehugsandcandy
Summary: Ellie loses parts of her past and finds her future.
Relationships: ingrid delaney/mc
Kudos: 1





	Lost and Found

The hinges squeaked as the dorm room door opened, but Ellie didn’t even look up, shifting books and boxes aside in utter panic. **  
**

“Why the hell are you under the bed?”

She didn’t reply, kept burrowing deeper into the darkness, whispering a fervent prayer that it fell underneath while she was sleeping.

“Ellie?” Ingrid’s footsteps edged closer. “Um. You…you okay?”

She sat up, slamming her head into the underside of her box spring before squirming out. “No.” She was decidedly not okay. Her chest was tight, breathing shallow; she had already felt lightheaded and now she had a lump on her crown to add to her awful day. “Have you seen my necklace?”

“Your necklace? The shiny silver one with the…the thing? One the end?”

“It’s a spark plug!”

Ingrid put her hands up, placatingly. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s just…” Ellie sagged onto her bed, furiously rubbing her eyes. She would not cry, she refused to, instead fighting down the sting behind her lids and the hammering of her heart. “I can’t find it anywhere, I swear I had it this yesterday-I mean, I wear it every day-but now it’s gone.” She needed that necklace. It was like a suit of armor, wrapping her in protective warmth and memories when the struggles of college seemed like they were too much. When she felt most anxious, it’s calming weight made her realize that she could do anything.

“I’m sorry.” Ingrid dropped her backpack on the bed and perched next to Ellie, any smart remark gone as she rubbed her shoulder with a comforting palm. “Should we go search for it? Retrace your steps?”

Ellie blinked back the tears, mouth dropping in awe. “We? You would do that with me?”

“Definitely!” Ingrid charged off the bed, leading the way as they weaved through the entire campus. Classrooms, libraries, gym, campus center-all turned up nothing. However, when Ingrid bought her a milkshake, spinning tales of her misadventures in Chem Lab that made Ellie’s laugh sweeten like chocolate, well, it didn’t feel so bad.

~~~~~

“Oh my God, what’s wrong?”

This time, Ellie couldn’t hold back the tears, heaping sobs that made their way, shuddering and heartbroken, out of her throat. “Someone…” She tried to sniff back some moisture, but it poured down her face, anyway. “Someone broke into my car.”

“Oh my God.”

“They broke the window, messed it up a bit-”

“Assholes! What the-I’m so sorry!” Ingrid pursed her lips, standing to embrace Ellie in a tight hug.

“But…but they stole my stuff,” Ellie wailed, clinging to her roommate.

“What stuff?”

“My…my cactus. And my fuzzy dice.” Ingrid pulled back to study her. She couldn’t possibly understand how much the items meant, but she knew they were important. “It’s just…” Ellie sighed, “They were special. People, really good friends, they gave them to me and I don’t even know if they-” Her voice broke. “-I don’t even know if I will ever see those people again. That’s all I had and-”

“Ellie, you don’t have to explain. I don’t know everything you went through senior year, but I’m sure it was rough. I know that stuff was important.”

Ellie nodded. Ingrid’s arms were still around her and the cashmere sweater was comforting, wrapping her in warmth that edged through her numb limbs. 

“El?” Ingrid probed, hesitantly, “Did you file a report with Security yet? In case any of your stuff turns up?”

She swiped at the tears still dripping from her chin; thankfully, Ingrid apparently hadn’t noticed her expensive clothes getting damp. Or maybe she didn’t care. “No.”

“Let’s go.”

“Really?” 

“Of course.” Ingrid stepped away to grab her purse, but Ellie pulled her back, folding her again into a massive hug.

“Thank you, Ingrid. Really….thank you.”

Ingrid’s face was indecipherable, a flush spreading over her nose. “I…Anything for you.”

~~~~~

Ellie ate her fourth slice, stomach aching dangerously, when Ingrid spoke up.

“Were you….are you dating one of them? The people who gave you the presents?”

“Why?” She swallowed pepperoni and cheese down a dry throat. “Why do you ask?”

Ingrid looked out the window. It was dark, even the light of the moon hiding behind a dense patchwork of clouds; Ellie didn’t see anything but the reflection of two college students, scarfing down junk food at 2am. “I just…I was just wondering.”

“They were…” Words flew through Ellie’s brain and she focused, thinking hard, considering the right ones. “They were all important to me. They were there for me when I was learning who I was, what I wanted.”

“Okay…”

Ellie blinked and she could see the quirk of Mona’s eyebrow as she teased, the fire in Colt’s eyes as he watched the shop burn, the warmth of Logan’s smile when he called her Troublemaker. But then it faded. “But I chose to be here. I chose to leave LA, to follow my dreams across the country. I know who I am, now.”

“Okay. I just always wondered.” Ingrid turned to face her, freckles speckled across her nose mingling with newly painted flush.

“Okay. Fine. Why did you go to the prom with Brent Vandermeer? I just always wondered.”

“He’s rich.” Ingrid smiled, all teeth, and Ellie was transported back in time to high school, when those dazzling, sneering grins were all she knew of her roommate. It easily softened into something warm, less shark, more friend and Ellie was brought back to the present, to the times she and Ingrid had crammed all night and laughed so hard they collapsed into tears. “And because he asked me.”

“Oh.”

“I would have…” Ingrid picked at her nails. Even after midnight, with tomato sauce on her cheek and hair askew in a ponytail, she was stunning. “I would have gone with someone else.” When she glanced up, her eyes shone. Ellie’s lungs wouldn’t inflate. “If they asked me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Ingrid didn’t look away and Ellie’s lungs burned. “Ellie, I always wondered…” Every word was halting; Ellie hung on every one. She had never seen Ingrid so unsure. “What did you mean when you said you would try not to break my heart?”

“I meant….I meant what I said.”

“Oh.” Her blond hair swished as she turned away and Ellie could finally breathe. “Are you gonna eat that last piece?”

She pushed the box away. “You can have it.” Suddenly, she wasn’t hungry anymore.

~~~~~

They were studying, both lying in companionable silence on Ellie’s bed. Finals were fast approaching and Ellie focused intently on the first draft of her English Lit essay; however, every so often Ingrid’s leg would brush hers and she would need to delete the last sentence of gibberish.

The blaring of the phone interrupted the peace. 

Ellie squinted at the unfamiliar number. “Hello?”

“Ms. Wheeler?”

“This is she.”

“This is Langston Public Safety.” The bored voice droned as Ellie furrowed her brow. Next to her, Ingrid sat up, abandoning her chemistry formulas to cast Ellie a puzzled frown. “I think we have your belongings here.”

“You…you do?”

“Yup. Looks like…a necklace, some dice…” Paper rustled over the line. “And some cactus looking plastic thing?”

“Oh. I….thanks.”

“You gonna come pick it up?”

“Umm….” Ingrid was still staring at her, expectantly waiting, a vision from her past, her present, and, Ellie realized in a shock, her future. “No, I don’t think I will.”

She hung up the phone to stare at her roommate. “Who was it?”

“Public safety. They found my stuff.”

She was watching Ingrid’s face closely enough to see her eyes dim. “Oh, that’s great. Are you gonna go get it?”

“No.” She curled her hand into Ingrid’s hair, taking advantage of her surprise to pull her closer. “I have everything I need right here.”

As their lips met, she tasted bubble gum lip gloss, a dazzling grin, and the certainty that she had made the right decision.


End file.
